Ciguatoxin
Ciguatoxin: A seafood toxin that is acquired by eating fish that have consumed toxic single-celled marine organisms called dinoflagellates or fish that have consumed other fish that have become toxic. When someone eats these fish, they suffer seafood poisoning. Food poisoning from ciguatoxin is called ciguatera.
Ciguatera can cause gastrointestinal, neuromuscular symptoms and respiratory problems. The gastrointestinal problems include abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. The neuromuscular problems may include tingling around the lips, abnormal or impaired skin sensations, hot-to-cold reversal, vertigo, lack of muscle coordination, weakness and numbness, muscle pain, and itching. There may be respiratory paralysis. Ciguatera symptom strike shortly after eating tainted fish. Symptoms may recur up to 6 months. Death is uncommon, but is known.
Fish with ciguatoxin come from the southeastern United States, Bahamian, and Caribbean regions, Hawaii, and subtropical and tropical areas worldwide including the central Pacific and northern Australia. Barracuda, amberjack, horse-eye jack, black jack, other large species of jack, king mackerel, large groupers, and snappers are particularly likely to contain ciguatoxin. Many other species of large fish-eating fish may also contain ciguatoxin.
Read Also:
- Cilia
Cilia: The fine hairlike projections from certain cells such as those in the respiratory tract that sweep in unison and help to sweep away fluids and particles. Some single-celled organisms use the rhythmical motion of cilia for locomotion. Cilia is the plural of cilium, a Latin word referring to the edge of the eyelid and, […]
- Ciliary body
Ciliary body: Part of the eye, the ciliary body is a circular structure just behind the iris composed of the ciliary muscle and ciliary processes which attach to the lens. The ciliary processes secrete the aqueous fluid, and the ciliary muscle modifies focus by changing the shape of the lens The ciliary body is part […]
- Ciliary muscle
Ciliary muscle: A circular muscle that relaxes or tightens the zonules to enable the lens to change shape for focusing. The zonules are fibers that hold the lens suspended in position and enable it to change shape during accommodation.
- Ciliary neuralgia
Ciliary neuralgia: A distinctive syndrome of headaches, better known today as cluster headache. There are two main clinical patterns of cluster headache — the episodic and the chronic: Episodic: This is the most common pattern of cluster headache. It is characterized by 1-3 short attacks of pain around the eyes per day, with these attacks […]
- Cinacalcet
Cinacalcet: A drug that acts as a calcimimetic and that is marketed under the trade name Sensipar. For more information, see: Calcimimetic.